


The Night Shift

by manoutoftimeandquake



Series: Dousy Week 2020 [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:15:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27461053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manoutoftimeandquake/pseuds/manoutoftimeandquake
Summary: My store has an employee bathroom and we let your store use it in return for the use of your store’s coffee machine in the employee backroom.Or Dousy retail AU where they both work the night shift togetherDousy Week Day 2: Alternate Universe
Relationships: Skye | Daisy Johnson/Daniel Sousa
Series: Dousy Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2006365
Comments: 6
Kudos: 44





	The Night Shift

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: it hurt my British soul to write “mall” instead of “shopping centre” and “store” instead of “shop”. But I refuse to use “elevator”.

“Excuse me, customers aren’t allowed back there.”

Daisy took one earbud out as she turned to look at the man stood behind the counter. He was a couple of years older than her and wearing a suit, which was fitting seeing as he worked in a suit store. He was frowning at her as she stood with one hand still on the door to the employee breakroom, a coffee mug in the other hand.

“Are you new here?” she asked.

The man seemed taken aback at her question. “Er, yeah, it’s my first day.”

She cringed slightly. “And they put you straight on the night shift? Damn.”

Jack Thompson walked over to the counter at that moment and saw the two of them. “Sousa, leave her alone; she’s allowed back there, she’s from the computer shop opposite.”

“What?” the man, Sousa, asked.

“You let us use the coffee machine in your employee breakroom and we let you use our employee bathroom, so you guys don’t have to walk all the way to the food court,” Daisy explained. She smiled at Sousa before making her way into the breakroom. “Nice to meet you, Sousa, I’ll see you around.”

***

It was seven in the morning and Daisy was making her way out of the mall after her shift when she heard the sound of footsteps approaching her. She looked around and saw that it was Sousa. He was limping slightly and leaning on a cane as he walked. Daisy stopped to let him catch up.

“Hey,” she greeted with a smile.

“Hey,” he replied. “I just wanted to apologise for earlier, I didn’t know about the deal our stores had.”

“It’s fine,” Daisy said. “And I don’t think we were properly introduced earlier, I’m Daisy Johnson.”

“Daniel Sousa,” he replied. “You work at the computer store, right?”

Daisy nodded. “That’s me.” She nodded her head in the direction of the bus stop. “You heading my way?”

Sousa nodded and the pair started walking towards the bus stop, making it there just in time to catch the bus. They sat in a comfortable silence until they both stood to get off at the same stop.

“Daniel Sousa, are you following me?” Daisy teased.

Sousa’s face flushed red as they walked off the bus. “I swear I’m not, that’s my building over there,” he explained as he pointed in the direction of an apartment building. Daisy let out a slight laugh when she saw where he was pointing. “What?”

“That’s where I live,” she answered. “Looks like we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other.”

***

“Why the night shift?” Daisy asked.

Sousa looked up from the counter and saw that Daisy was sat on a seat by the shoes. “Shouldn’t you be at the computer store?”

“I’m on my break and was bored, so I thought I’d come see if the new guy was settling in,” Daisy explained. “So, why the night shift?”

“Thompson got it for me,” Sousa explained. “He’s an old friend, he knew I was looking for work and managed to get me a job, but the only shift was the night shift.” He looked around the store for a moment before sighing and looking back to Daisy. “I get that this is a twenty-four mall, but does a suit store really need to be open all night?”

Daisy let out a slight laugh. “I ask the same every day about the computer store.”

“Then why don’t you transfer to the day shift?” Sousa asked.

“Because then I would actually have to deal with customers,” Daisy replied with a shrug.

“Fair point.”

***

“And that’s why me and Jemma are banned from that casino,” Daisy said as she and Sousa reached the bus stop. “But again, no one told us they were edibles, how we were meant to know they would make us high?”

“That… is certainly an interesting story,” Sousa replied. “How’s Jemma now?”

“She’s doing great,” she answered. “She and Fitz are married now; they have a kid and everything.” She sat next to him at the bus stop.

“It was when I was in the army,” Sousa said, seemingly out of nowhere.

“What?” Daisy asked.

“My leg, I lost it when I was in the army,” he explained. He looked over at Daisy. “I know you were wondering, everyone does. I was honourably discharged, but I had no family to come back to. That’s why I came here and took the job when Thompson was able to get it for me. Sure, he can be an ass, but he was the only friend I had left.”

“I grew up in the foster system,” Daisy replied. Sousa seemed confused at her sudden confession. “Hey, if you’re opening up about your life, then so am I.”

“What happened?” Sousa asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“I lost my parents when I was two,” Daisy explained. “Car crash on the way to pick me up from daycare, they were only a couple of streets away when it happened. I bounced around from home to home for years. I didn’t stay anywhere for longer than a couple of months until I was fifteen and got placed with Phil and Mel. I stayed with them until I aged out of the system, and even after that they kept me around until I finished college and they still refer to me as their daughter.”

“I’m glad,” Sousa replied. “Not about the first bit, about the last part with your foster parents. They sound like good people.”

“They are,” Daisy said as their bus approached. She let out a small yawn as she sank down into her seat.

“Tired?” Sousa asked.

Daisy nodded. “Thought after so long working the night shift I’d be used to being up all night by now, but sometimes it still gets to me.”

“You can take a nap if you want, I’ll wake you up when we get to our stop,” Sousa offered. Daisy muttered a thanks and settled down in the seat. After a few moments, she leant over and rested her head on Sousa’s shoulder. Sousa looked down at her in shock for a few moments before smiling to himself as she began to snore slightly.

***

It was early in Daisy’s shift when she saw Sousa hurrying into the store.

“Can I hide in here?” he asked as he approached the counter.

“Uh… sure,” Daisy replied. “Why though?”

“Peggy’s in my store,” Sousa answered.

“Oh shit,” Daisy said with a slight cringe. Over the last few months of spending time together after their shifts, and often during their shifts when their stores were empty, Daisy had heard about Sousa’s relationship with his ex, Peggy. “What’s she doing here?”

“She’s here with her fiancé, looking at suits for him for their wedding,” Sousa replied.

“Yeah, you can hide here for as long as you want,” Daisy said. “Her fiancé, is that the guy she was with like a week after you broke up? Steve?” Sousa nodded. “I hate them, I’ve never met them, but I hate them on your behalf.”

Sousa let out a laugh. “Thank you.” He shot her a warm smile and Daisy felt her cheeks flush red.

Movement from the front of the store caught Daisy’s eye. She looked over and tensed up slightly. “Is Peggy a brunette who wears red lipstick? And is Steve blond and tall?” she asked.

“Yes, why?” Sousa replied. He followed her gaze and swore under his breath when he saw Peggy and Steve making their way over to the service counter. “Shit, they’re gonna know I was hiding from them.”

“Just follow my lead,” she muttered to him as Peggy and Steve came up to them. Sousa shot her a confused look, but Daisy didn’t have time to respond before Peggy and Steve arrived at the counter. “Hi, welcome to River’s End Electronics. My name is Daisy Johnson, how may I help you today?”

Steve pulled his phone out of his back pocket and placed it on the counter. “I’ve been having some issues with my phone charging and I think I may have damaged the charging port.”

As Daisy took a look at Steve’s phone, she couldn’t help but overhear Peggy and Sousa’s conversation.

“Daniel, is that you?” Peggy asked.

“Peggy, hi,” Sousa greeted. Daisy almost cringed at the awkward tone of the conversation. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“I haven’t seen you in three years, how are things going for you?” Peggy asked.

“Pretty good,” he replied.

“Are you still in the army?”

“No, I got an honourable discharge,” he said. “Thompson got me a job at the suit store.”

Peggy looked around them at the displays of laptops and phones. “This isn’t the suit store.”

“That’s because he came to see me,” Daisy interrupted as she handed Steve back his phone. “Hi, I’m Daisy, Daniel’s girlfriend.”

Sousa froze for a moment before smiling at her. “Yeah, I just came to see her while I was on my break,” he explained, going along with Daisy’s ruse.

“And I have a stock check to get done and your break’s almost over, and you know how Thompson can be,” she said.

Sousa nodded. “You’re right. I’ll see you after your shift?”

“I’ll see you then,” Daisy replied. She leant over the counter and pressed a quick to his cheek. “Bye.”

For the second time since Peggy and Steve arrived, Sousa froze. He stared at Daisy for a moment before snapping back to reality and smiling at Daisy. “I’ll see you later,” he said before walking out of the store. Peggy and Steve left not long after, leaving Daisy alone in the store, wondering if she had just messed up her relationship with Sousa.

***

The bus ride home that morning was uncomfortably quiet, neither of them knowing what to say after the kiss in the electronics store earlier that day. It wasn’t until they were in the lift up to their floor that the silence became too much for Daisy.

“I’m sorry,” she burst out.

“What?”

“I’m sorry about what happened earlier in front of Peggy and Steve,” Daisy elaborated. “I shouldn’t’ve just gone with the whole fake girlfriend routine without checking you were okay with it, especially the whole kissing you thing, even it was just on the cheek.” She sighed slightly and looked at the floor. “I’m sorry if this messed up anything between us.” The lift door opened, and she hurried down the corridor to her apartment without looking back. She had barely been in her apartment for a minute when she heard footsteps approaching her door and then a knock. Sousa was on the other side of the door when she opened it.

“Do you want to get coffee sometime?” he asked.

“Wait, what?”

“Coffee? Like, a date?” he repeated.

“But… I-”

“I know what you said, but you didn’t mess anything up between us,” he said. “When you first started the fake girlfriend routine, I don’t know… I just thought that maybe you also thought there might be something between the two of us.”

Daisy stared at him with a dumbfounded look on her face. “Daniel…”

Sousa sighed, his shoulders sinking slightly. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. Now I’m the one who messed it up.”

He went to back off and head towards his apartment, but Daisy lunged forward and grabbed him by the lapels of his shirt, pulling him in close to her. She tipped her head up slightly and kissed him. At first, Sousa didn’t respond, and Daisy thought she had been the one to mess things up between them after all. She pulled back from him slightly, her hands still gripping tightly onto his shirt, unable to look up and meet his eyes.

That was when Sousa surprised her, leaning back in to crash his lips against hers. Daisy staggered backwards from the force, her back pressing against the wall as his weight pinned her place. She grinned into the kiss as she let go of his shirt to loop her arms around the back of his neck as his arms dropped to hold her around her waist and pull her up against him.

Daisy was breathless when they eventually broke apart. “That was nice,” she said as she grinned up at him. “But I have to sleep, and I think you do too.”

“Half-four.”

“What?”

“I’m usually fully awake by half-four,” he explained. “Maybe we can talk more about our date then.”

“I’ll see you then,” Daisy replied with a nod. She watched as Sousa walked back to his apartment before making her way to her bedroom, a small grin on her face and a giddy skip in her step as she went.


End file.
